Senator seeks tax on pimps, prostitutes
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Senator seeks tax on pimps, prostitutes
Grassley: 'It's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers'
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/27/pimp.tax/index.html
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote Wednesday morning on the pimp tax. The bill also calls for more jail time for sex workers.
If passed, the provision will authorize at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.
"Recent headlines have focused on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup in Germany," Grassley said. "This vile crime is under our noses in the United States, and it's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers. Prosecuting these tax code violations can get these guys off the street and yank from their grasp the girls and women they exploit."
Grassley said the problem is "especially horrible" when underage girls are involved.
Asked if taxing sex workers would legitimize their trade, a Grassley spokesman said the goal was simply to find "yet another alternative to track the money flowing in this industry to get at potential criminals."
Currently, the IRS has to prove a prostitute's or pimp's income to pursue a tax law violation. But under Grassley's proposal, a pimp could get up to 10 years in prison for each prostitute for whom the pimp hasn't filed a W-2, which means a pimp caught with 10 unregistered prostitutes faces a century in prison.
Carol Leigh, a representative of the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network in San Francisco, California, called the proposal short-sighted.
"Forced labor, kidnapping should be targeted. But this legislation broadly targets the sex trade in general, and could target your local strip club," Leigh said. "We want laws enforced against those who abuse us, against those who are violent, and enforcement of labor regulations. That is the only truly effective way to protect the welfare of the women who work in the industry."
Grassley: 'It's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers'
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/27/pimp.tax/index.html
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.
The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote Wednesday morning on the pimp tax. The bill also calls for more jail time for sex workers.
If passed, the provision will authorize at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.
"Recent headlines have focused on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup in Germany," Grassley said. "This vile crime is under our noses in the United States, and it's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers. Prosecuting these tax code violations can get these guys off the street and yank from their grasp the girls and women they exploit."
Grassley said the problem is "especially horrible" when underage girls are involved.
Asked if taxing sex workers would legitimize their trade, a Grassley spokesman said the goal was simply to find "yet another alternative to track the money flowing in this industry to get at potential criminals."
Currently, the IRS has to prove a prostitute's or pimp's income to pursue a tax law violation. But under Grassley's proposal, a pimp could get up to 10 years in prison for each prostitute for whom the pimp hasn't filed a W-2, which means a pimp caught with 10 unregistered prostitutes faces a century in prison.
Carol Leigh, a representative of the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network in San Francisco, California, called the proposal short-sighted.
"Forced labor, kidnapping should be targeted. But this legislation broadly targets the sex trade in general, and could target your local strip club," Leigh said. "We want laws enforced against those who abuse us, against those who are violent, and enforcement of labor regulations. That is the only truly effective way to protect the welfare of the women who work in the industry."
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453B.7 Tax imposed - rate of tax.
An excise tax is imposed on dealers at the following rates:
1. On each gram of processed marijuana, or each portion of a gram, five dollars.
2. On each gram or portion of a gram of any taxable substance sold by weight other than marijuana, two hundred fifty dollars.
3. On each unprocessed marijuana plant, seven hundred fifty dollars.
4. On each ten dosage units of any taxable substance, other than unprocessed marijuana plants, that is not sold by weight, or portion thereof, four hundred dollars.
"Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that the answer to getting rid of the sex trade is to tax it. As his theory goes, if you tax hooks and pimps, they'll be so out of money that they will cease the behavior of selling sex. Dream on, Senator. Is this what this man was sent to Washington to do? Figure out a way to tax hookers? First of all, on what planet does Grassley live that he thinks hookers and pimps are going to voluntarily hand over a large chunk of their earnings? Second, his plan to jail those who don't pay...how is that going to work? How is the IRS going to know how much they earned? Are johns going to start issuing 1099 to their call girls?
If Grassley is so intent on taxing hookers, how about decriminalizing prostitution in the first place? Make 'em pay for a license! And don't give me this morals nonsense. Hookers could not possibly be a greater blight on our society than politicians.
This just points out the further need for the Fair Tax. Once the power to screw around with the tax code is essentially removed from politicians' hands, then they won't have the ability to decide what behavior should be taxed and what shouldn't. It's not their decision and under the Fair Tax plan, it won't be. Grassley wants to waste $2 million of taxpayer money on an IRS office to prosecute sex workers for violating tax laws.
And here's something else: under the Fair Tax plan, everybody would pay. So even when pimps and prostitutes bought something, they would cough up their share of the tax. Besides, governments have been trying to shut down the sex trade for centuries. It is, as they say, the oldest profession. Well ... maybe the second oldest. There's always the tax collector."
-Boortz